Worried About Climate Change? The USAF is.

     There are a half dozen U.S. Air Force Bases along the Florida Gulf Coast that the Pentagon says are threatened by Climate Change.

    And there are more if you add up bases for other services, like the Navy and Coast Guard.

   What happens there on the Florida Gulf Coast will have a significant, important impact on Alabama including on our existing bases like Maxwell in Montgomery and Ft. Rucker near Dothan.

   Rolling Stone has the background HERE.
 

Parking: Location, location location.

     When I moved from Manhattan to Birmingham, I often told my new Alabama friends that is cost more to park a car in New York City than it cost to rent an apartment in Birmingham...and it was true.
     Now some New York City parking is more expensive than buying most houses in Alabama!

From a NY Times story about luxury parking in that city:

Iliad Realty Group paid $9 million for a 90-space garage at 94 Laight Street in TriBeCa that offered hourly and monthly rentals. Iliad is now converting it to a members-only facility with just 60 spaces.... The parking spaces on Laight Street, which are licensed, were unveiled this summer for $400,000, plus a $500 monthly fee. 

9-23-19 last day of Summer & Time Change

Yes, it has been a very hot Summer...and now that Fall is here, can we expect some relief? Noooooooo.

Here's The National Weather Service Forecast for the first week of "Fall":

Monday

Sunny, with a high near 94. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph.

Monday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 71. Calm wind.

Tuesday

A slight chance of showers between 10am and 1pm, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 94. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tuesday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 66. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.

Wednesday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 96.

Wednesday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 70.

Thursday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 97.

Thursday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 71.

Friday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 97.

Friday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 71.

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 97.

Saturday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 70.

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 97.

No monthly map yet for September, but so far for the year:

     






By the way, time change comes up on November 3rd, so be prepared for five weeks of darker days till then.

Ending Coal-Fired Power Plants.

From WSOC TV in North Carolina:

The 2050 targets in Duke (Energy's) new effort to address issues surrounding climate change match some of the most aggressive carbon-reduction plans in the industry. That will require Duke to speed up the closure of its remaining coal plants, says Diane Denton, vice president for state energy policy:

"Duke ... recognizes that reducing carbon dioxide emissions is a critical part of addressing the global challenge of climate change," she says. "And we believe that reducing risks associated with a changing climate, including greenhouse gas emissions and hardening the system against more extreme weather, is good for our customers and good for our business."

The Alabama Power Greene County Coal Plant. Being Switched to Natural gas.

HERE is a list of coal fired plants nationwide that are being closed down, i.e. "retired".

Happy This Morning?

I'm not especially happy to report on the state(s) of happiness.
The HAPPIEST and LEAST HAPPY U.S. States:

 

 

 

 

The top 10 happiest states in the US: 

10. Connecticut
9. Nebraska
8. Maryland
7. Massachusetts
6. Idaho
5. New Jersey
4. California
3. Minnesota
2. Utah
1. Hawaii

The 10 least happy states in the US:

10. Missouri
9. Tennessee
8. Oklahoma
7. Alabama
6. Kentucky
5. Louisiana
4. Mississippi
3. Alaska
2. Arkansas
1. West Virginia

Source: Wallet Hub September 2019

Lung Cancer

     Has anyone asked Governor Ivey whether she smokes now, or if she did so in the past?
     Usually that would come under the none-of-your-business category of questions, but with Ivey being treated for lung cancer, and smoking being the number one cause, it is both a logical and appropriate question.  80% of lung cancer deaths in Alabama are attributed to smoking.

     White females in Alabama who are diagnosed with lung cancer have a mortality rate of 42.8%, though the Governor and her staff are upbeat about her recovery.
   
      From a Cancer Society handout from 2018 quoting Ivey as recommending people talk with their doctors about screening. It says the five year survival rate for cancers found in the early stage is 55%:

"Cigarette smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer, with 80 percent of lung cancer deaths in the US attributable to smoking. Risk increases with quantity and duration of cigarette consumption. Cigar and pipe smoking also increase risk. Other risk factors include occupational or environmental exposure to secondhand smoke, radon, asbestos (particularly among smokers), certain metals (chromium, cadmium,arsenic), some organic chemicals..."

 You can read the most recent Alabama lung cancer stats HERE.
   
And by the way, I smoked for a lot of years, but quit almost 20 years ago.


    

The 1999 Radio Hit Song: Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen.

     I had just arrived in Montgomery from Birmingham in 1999, and probably had not adjusted to the city's radio stations and their formats.

   
      Those factors may explain how I managed to all but miss a song that became so popular it is now the subject of an hour-long documentary on the BBC.
   
      It was an unusual song, but it made it to the top of the charts: Here are some of the "lyrics", though all of them were spoken, not sung. See if you remember them:

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the
older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were
young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard;

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

      It was called The Sunscreen Song, for the first line. Here's a link to the BBC documentary. And here is the "song":

ANOTHER Best & Worst State Capitals list

Montgomery ranks right in the middle...#24

They write: 

24. Montgomery, Alabama

A low household income score is the biggest factor in Montgomery’s ranking. However, it still enjoys low rent and home prices. The annual cost of necessities, such as transportation and healthcare, isn’t too bad either at $17,759.

Here's the full ranking of the 50 Capitals.

Modern Rules

(One of the panelists at a Democratic Presidential Candidate forum in Iowa last night, a Northern Iowa Student Government rep named Elle Boeding...) "...was turned off by Biden at times interrupting a newspaper columnist on the panel Lyz Lenz:

“In this specific setting, interrupting a woman is a no go ... I don’t know what it will take for him to connect the dots,” Boeding said.

Huh? Glad she is only a student.

Does that mean a man can interrupt another man, and a woman can interrupt a man but...? 

See the Reuters story HERE. 

The States of Less Government Want More?

     Alabama is one of them......as opposed to 23 states and some municipalities that are in court trying to force the Federal Government to let the states impose cleaner air standards than the Feds have established.

The closest to The South is North Carolina.
Georgia? Nah.
Mississippi, Please not.
Alabama? Of course not.
...and so forth.

You can read the court filing by the other states HERE.

I guess state's right's only applies when a state wants to allow slavery and stuff.

Cars on Board

  

Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Dickinson 

U.S. Coast Guard District 7 PADET Jacksonville

  It's been two weeks since a massive auto transport ship turned on its side off the Georgia coast.
     The ship was transporting thousands of vehicles, and some of them were Alabama made.

     The Atlanta Journal/Constitution reported on Wednesday that it may take many weeks to develop a plan to salvage the ship, hopefully in one piece:

"The cargo, a mix of old and new passenger vehicles from a range of manufacturers, also contains fluids such as gasoline, engine oil and antifreeze. The salvage team is working to address how it will handle the pollutants inside the ship..."

     Although none of the vehicles were from the Montgomery Hyundai plant, a Hyudai spokesman tells www.timlennox.com about 300 were made at the Kia plant across the state line in Georgia. 
     A spokeswoman for Mercedes USA says "a few" Mercedes vehicles were on board. That doesn't account for the vast majority of the four-thousand cars on board when the ship flipped on its side.

UPDATE: The Car&Driver website also reports Kia vehicles on board and adds this background:

"Automakers have dealt with the loss of an entire ship's worth of vehicles before. In 2006, as C/D reported, a cargo ship called the Cougar Ace capsized when it was near Alaska on a journey from Asia to North America with $103 million worth of brand-new Mazdas on board. The 23-member crew needed to be rescued, and all 4703 cars were eventually crushed.

The Golden Ray was built in 2017 and was sailing under the flag of the Marshall Islands. It has the capacity to carry 6933 vehicles and is owned by GL NV24 Shipping and operated by Hyundai Glovis..." 

Health: Asthma in The South

 The one fact that jumped out to me from this CDC report was the Asthma rate in the South compared to the rest of the country.

Characteristics of Asthma Visits to Physician Offices in the United States: 2012–2015 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey

Physician office visits United States 2012 - 2015


Region             #in Thou         %        #i(nThou )   %   

Northeast         190,230         20.4      2,422       23.8   

Midwest .          173,572        18.6      1,793       17.7
South               348,084        34.7     3,508        34.5
West.                219,800        23.6     2,438        24.0 


And the most recent numbers of Alabama residents with asthma are alarming. 

409,623 Alabama residents have asthma...10.9% of the population.

Yet Birmingham is the only city listed in the Southeast as "The Top 20 Most Challenging Places to Live With Asthma" 

Vaping Lung Problems: Alabama is The Outlier.

On Thursday Mississippi reported its first case of the lung ailments being reported by young people who vape...

...and that makes Alabama even more of an exception. 

     Why has Alabama avoided even one case when we are now surrounded by states that have reported cases? 

Bird Decimation

The New York Times reports:

The skies are emptying out.

The number of birds in the United States and Canada has fallen by 29 percent since 1970, scientists reported on Thursday. There are 2.9 billion fewer birds taking wing now than there were 50 years ago.

The analysis, published in the journal Science, is the most exhaustive and ambitious attempt yet to learn what is happening to avian populations. The results have shocked researchers and conservation organizations.

1st Air National Guard F-35s Being Delivered Today...in Vermont

TIME magazine reports:
 
(MONTPELIER, Vt.) — The Vermont Air National Guard is due to take delivery of the first two of what will become 20 F-35 fighter aircrafts, the first guard unit to receive the next-generation fighter.
The aircraft will be based at the Burlington International Airport and are being flown to Vermont on Thursday from the factory in Fort Worth, Texas.
The delivery follows years of hard work, planning and missions in the guard’s previous aircraft, F-16s that flew continuously for weeks over New York after the 9/11 attacks and in multiple combat tours in Iraq and other areas of the Middle East.

At last report, the other Air National Guard F-35s are due to arrive here in Montgomery in 2023.

Prayer is the Answer ro "Rampant Evil".

  

    So says the Sheriff of Blount Count Alabama. 
    He's scheduled a prayer vigil after several crimes in the county.

The sheriff says the “stressful times and most recent events” have made it “evident that evil is running rampant among us.” The vigil is set for Oct. 2 at a high school."

     I'm not sure prayer is the answer. Look at the three-page list of churches in Blount County.

Alabama is Trump Country and Anti-Union and Pro Business...

    

...so why is Alabama ranked so low in this Trump supporting, pro-business, anti-union, U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey?

Alabama ranks 42nd on the list of states, despite a Republican dominated legislature. In fact every one of the statewide elected positions, from the Governor on down, are filled by Republicans, and have been for a decade or more.

HERE's the complete data.

$pace Dollar$

     Only when you're discussing projects in space is "a few Billion Dollars" considered  "cheap".

Researchers say that's how "little" it would cost to create a kind of elevator between the Earth and The Moon. Really!

Observer Media has the story:

"Columbia astronomy students Zephyr Penoyre and Emily Sandford proposed the idea of a “lunar space elevator,” which is exactly what it sounds like—a very long elevator connecting the moon and our planet."

Going UP!

New State Abortion Report

•  
  
  
• Alabama has 59 Counties in which there is no clinic. (93%).

• Alabama has the 4th largest decrease in abortions in The South (-23%) between 2014 and 2017. 

• The report from the Guttmacher Institute* is HERE. It suggests the decrease is not because of state legislative restrictions:

  "the (national) decline in abortions appears to be related to declines in births and pregnancies overall. There are a number of potential explanations for this broad decline, some more plausible than others"

 

*Your support enables the Guttmacher Institute to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights in the United States and globally through our interrelated program of high-quality research, evidence-based advocacy and strategic communications.

 

1st EVER N.Y. Times mention of Alabama, and of Montgomery, 32 years after Statehood.

     On this date in 1851, the N.Y. Times reports on a meeting to be held in Montgomery in the new year of 1852, a decade before the start of the Civil War. A harbinger of what was to come.

     But above that notice was an item about Alabama people being "apprehensive" about a famine. With a meeting held in Pickens County. That was four years after the state capitol was moved from nearby Tuscaloosa to Montgomery.